I had many bird feeders on the trees at my place, and wondered why there were no squirrels assaulting them. Then I realized that the trees are in the middle of fields, and there are always hawks around.
We used to have free ranging chickens, but they all got eaten by something. Now I have a large pen divided into three sections, two of which are covered by either roof or wire. The largest part is open with ropes strung a foot apart. I have discovered that hawks, owls and eagles won't enter where they are unsure of escape, and, while they could get into the outer pen, they could not fly out. So far no losses with this system. Fingers crossed.
Mostly mine are in and around my pole building. Of course there are exceptions, like when someone leaves the garden fence open
That's great stuff! I was wondering how big are the salmon that you catch get? I enjoy fishing, especially fresh water But I haven't done that much of it. I purchased a lifetime license about 20 years ago, maybe I used it 4 times.
It depends on the type of salmon @Tony Page. Pinks are the smallest but the most numerous and lowest on the "edible" scale. Here is an explanation of the different salmon we have. Our 10 salmon totaled around 50 pounds--9 Reds and 1 Silver. When we lived in the bush, we caught a hundred or more every year, but we had 5 children at home then two of which were teenaged boys. It was our primary source of protein. Alaska residents are entitled to life fishing, hunting and trapping licenses when we turn 65, and we are allowed to assign proxies to hunt, fish and trap for us if we have difficulty.
Off to Washington today for a week to visit our daughters and make another contact with a one-year-old grand daughter born on her oldest sister's 22nd birthday. Eldest grandchild has organized a "Girls Day Out" with all the female relatives in Washington going to a Renaissance Fair. That will leave 3 grandsons, two sons-in-law and me adrift. The two sons-in -law don't get along well, so we'll see what happens.
We have a go kart course here. Anything like that in Washington? You can tuck your knees under your chin. Mini golf etc? Sports bars?
We went to the Combat and Air Museum, then out to Red Robin. It was a great time, and the ladies enjoyed themselves as well.
I have been frustrated by a wiring project that about drove me mad. I wanted to move an overhead powerline from my chicken house to my tractor shed underground. I of course started it a few days before going to Washington. I dug the trench (only about 13 feet), laid the conduit and pulled the cable through it. I had shut the power off at a GFCI in another building. I got everything connected, then tried to reset the GFCI and it wouldn't stay on. Frustrated as all get out, I disconnected everything and tried again. No luck. It still would not reset. I covered the trench with a plank and went to Washington. Today the rain stopped long enough to address the issue once again. Since no circuits were connected and only the line running form the barn underground was connected, I decided that perhaps the GFCI had gone bad. It was, after all, quite old from back in the days when we had livestock. I disassembled the box and its contents and discovered a broken ground wire inside the box. I hadn't entered that box in probably 10 years and everything was working before I shut it off to do the wiring project. It was crazy, but I then went back through everything and reconnected all the stuff I had disconnected in my search for something wrong. Everything is roughed in now, but I am leaving the interior boxes open for a day or so incase something else pops. No danger and no children around, but the boxes are wired and open.
The 3 way switches in my kitchen stopped working. I replaced them, and only one switch will turn on the lights. It really can't be anything more than a wire nut that's come loose somewhere...can it? When I got my first microwave, it was in a house that was built in the 1940s and had cloth insulation. So I ran a dedicated grounded circuit to it (because I read that if something else on the circuit kicked in and you got a voltage drop, those original magnetrons did not like it.) I won't even mess with something like that these days.
I would start by disconnecting everything from the GFI, If it doesn't trip connect one section at a time to see which one causes it to trip. For this Type of project, I would use underground wire, I found it hold up better in wet conditions. You can still use conduit. I put underground Wire in about 40 years ago, Other than one problem that I caused it's been working fine.
We have wonderful drainage here as we are built on a glacial moraine--gravel, gravel gravel. We do get puddles and even "lakes" where the soil gets packed down, but this was in virgin soil.
Yep @Tony Page that is what I did. I use the UF (underground/outdoor) cable inside my conduits. I used to lay the cable without the conduit, but I discovered that in earthquake country the cable connections (I don't have any underground though) sometime get undone. If I want to replace the cable for any reason or switch to a heavier gauge I would have to did it all up. When the conduit is run. I can simply tie the new to the old and pull it through. Plus, I think is is safer to have the cable within a conduit if it is underground.